


Magneto's Kitchen

by Amaranth42



Category: X-Men (Alternate Timeline Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern: Still Have Powers, Attempt at Humor, But his cat doesn't give a shit, Cats, Charles in a Wheelchair, Erik is Crushing Harder than a 12-year Old Girl, First Meetings, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute, YouTuber Erik
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-02
Updated: 2019-01-02
Packaged: 2019-09-18 16:22:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16998432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amaranth42/pseuds/Amaranth42
Summary: Charles couldn't help but become fascinated by the man on the screen. His baritone voice had a soothing effect. His slender and deft fingers and how he rolled up his sleeves, showing his defined upper arms, were pleasing to the eye. Not to mention the way he used his power to cut, chop, whisk, and cook all these amazing food. There was something mesmerizing about it. Perhaps it was how he did it with such fine and precise control, and how at ease he was with his power.





	Magneto's Kitchen

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JackyJango](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackyJango/gifts).



> For JackyJango, I like all your prompts but didn't have enough time to write one of them into a full story. I hope this little meet-cute finds you well. Happy holidays!

_“Use medium-high heat to make the crepe, and set it aside in a plate for now.”_

Charles couldn't help but become fascinated by the man on the screen. His baritone voice had a soothing effect. His slender and deft fingers and how he rolled up his sleeves, showing his defined upper arms, were pleasing to the eye. Not to mention the way he used his power to cut, chop, whisk, and cook all these amazing food. There was something mesmerizing about it. Perhaps it was how he did it with such fine and precise control, and how at ease he was with his power.

_The cat, Magnet, who was sitting on top of the stool across the kitchen island, seemed intrigued as well. He watched his mutant intently, his fluffy tail swinging._

"What? What's so interesting?" Raven walked into his room, surprised that her perceptive telepathic brother didn't seem to sense her coming in.

Charles waved his phone in his hand. "Raven, you need to watch this."

Raven slumped into the chair next to his bed. "What is it?"

"It's a YouTube Channel called 'Magneto's Kitchen'."

"Huh?" Perplexed, Raven let her gaze fall onto Charles' phone.

_The man, Magneto (as he calls himself), picked up an orange with his hand. His knife floated in the air, seemingly to be moving on its own, peeled the orange skin in one piece and left a tiny bit attached to the fruit._

"Showoff." Raven scoffed.

"Yes, he is," Charles chuckled. "But you can't deny how good he is."

_He poured a glass of cognac and put it near the flame to ignite it before dumping the liquor onto the spiral orange skin. The blue-red flames spewed out like a waterfall of fireworks._

_The orange Maine Coon arched his back, seemingly alarmed by the flames. After the flames burned out, he finally eased down and melted into a puddle of ginger-colored liquid on the stool._

_"Thank you for watching!" The man held the ginger cat in his arms, gently holding a paw in his hand and waved to the camera. "Say goodbye to our audience, Magnet."_

Oh goodness, his voice was almost magnetic. Charles thought to himself.

_"Meow?"_

"Impressive," Raven admitted. "Still a showoff, though. Also, who names their cat 'Magnet'?"

"Someone who can bend metals and manipulate magnetic fields." Charles laughed with his sister, feeling the warmth spreading across his chest. 

He'd been in the rehabilitation center for a few months now. A car accident over half a year ago injured his spine. And he'd be lying if he said the idea of not being able to walk for the rest of his life wasn't terrifying, but being at the center, joining help groups, and having the support of his family made the transition a little easier.

"I brought you some books and snacks. Let me know if you need anything else."

"Thanks, Raven," Charles lifted up his gaze from the screen and let out a soft smile. "But don't you have classes today?"

"Yes, which means I have to go now." Raven stood up before kissing Charles on the cheek. "You know, the weather has been really nice lately. You can go out and get some fresh air when you're done watching cooking videos." She was merciful for not teasing him about the fact that he can only make sandwiches and pancakes, Charles thought to himself.

"Thanks, I'll remember that." Charles smiled fondly as his sister collected her purse and walked out.

X

"You're so popular, Magnet." Erik picked up the fluffy cat out of the carrier bag and curled his fingers around the leash before putting him down on the ground while completely ignoring the weird looks from other people in the park implying  _who the hell walks a cat?_ "They're all looking at you, must be your fans."

Magnet, on the other hand, seemed to be unimpressed by his fans or the flowers basking in the fresh spring sunlight.

[ ](https://imgur.com/QAoDmtp)

Instead, he headed to the pavement. Erik let his mind wander around while blindly following Magnet's lead.

 _Speaking of fans_... It had been almost a year since Professor Xavier took on mutant issues in that commencement speech which went viral. He was in the spotlight for a hot second, but after that few had heard from him. Erik wondered what the professor was up to these days. _Teaching and doing research, of course._ Erik couldn't help but laugh at himself for the silly question.

It was only until the leash slipped off from his fingers he brought himself back to reality.

"Magnet, no!"

The ginger cat jumped onto someones' wheelchair and put one of his paws on the man's hand.

"Sorry about that." Erik ran to pick up the cat, who meowed in disappointment.

"No worries. Your cat is a lovely fella." The man in the chair lifted up his chin to smile at Erik--much to the latter's surprise, he was  _the_ professor--and patted Magnet on the head. "Hello there."

"Hi, professor." He regretted immediately after saying that, feeling the greeting was too abrupt. _The professor doesn't even know who he is!_

"Please forgive me, which class were you in?" Charles let out another smile, his chestnut curls almost shimmering in the sunlight. "It's been a while since I taught. What's your name again?"

"Oh no, I'm not a student. Um, I mean--" Charles' confused expression was only making Erik stutter more. "E-Erik. My name is Erik."

"You sound familiar, Erik. But you said you're not a student of mine?"

Letting out a whoop of air, Erik regained his composure. "No, I've watched your commencement speech on YouTube, but I didn't go to Johns Hopkins."

"Oh, I see. Since you're interested in my speech, I assume you're a mutant, then? Which school did you go to?"

"Georgetown. Law school... And yes, I'm a mutant."

Before Erik was able to continue, his thoughts were interrupted as Magnet, who was getting bored being held, decided to take matters in his own paws, climbed up on Erik's shoulder, claws clinging to the fabric of his shirt.

"Ouch. Magnet, no!"

Charles' eyes widened in surprise, then his face lightened up in delight. "I knew there was a reason you sounded familiar! You're Magneto. On YouTube."

Now it was Erik's turn to be surprised. "You've watched my videos?" He reached his hand in a futile effort trying to stop the cat from destroying his shirt.

"Yes. What a groovy mutation you've got."

Erik could feel his heart thumping madly in his chest, but still trying his best not to think too hard about the fact the man he looked up to (and had a crush on, even though he denied it) was talking to him and _complimenting_ him, knowing he was also a very powerful telepath.

But apparently, the cat gave zero shit about the invisible pink bubbles of love in the air. He jumped off of Erik's shoulders and started running around him, leash trailing behind his fluffy tail. The very same leash Erik was holding, which means it was tightening around his legs. Then Magnet decided it was time to jump up at Charles' chair again.

Erik used his power to push the metal wheelchair out of the way before falling onto the ground, crashing hard on his elbows and palms.

 _Fucking fantastic. Not only he sounded like a complete idiot in front of his crush, but he also successfully embarrassed himself in the stupidest way_. He stared at the concrete pavement, wishing he had a second mutation of being melted into the ground.

"Are you alright?" Charles wheeled himself to Erik, reaching out a hand. "It was kind of you for pushing me away, but it was really unnecessary. I could've caught you. Are you hurt?"

"I-I'm fine..." Erik reluctantly took Charles' hand and got up, unable to look at the man in the eyes.

"You're bleeding, Erik." Cat on his lap, Charles wheeled around, heading to the parking lot. "Let's get your wounds cleaned up and put some Band-Aid on. My car is parked right there."

"Please call me Charles, by the way." Charles turned his head to Erik to give him a mischievous smirk. "We can have lunch afterward and talk about your 'crush', if you want."

_Damn telepaths._

X

After lunch, there was a silent understanding between them that there would be many more meals like this to come.

They learned a lot about each other during lunch. Charles was only one year older than Erik, as he started and finished his education much earlier than his peers. About a year ago, Charles got into a car accident which injured his spine. During his time in the rehabilitation center, for the first time in his life, he didn't have to care about school so he became addicted to the Internet. One day he stumbled upon Magneto's Kitchen and was impressed by his power and cooking skills ("I honestly thought people were there for Magnet," Erik laughed).

Erik, on the other hand, was interning in a law firm in DC. He told Charles that his speech on mutant rights inspired him to go to law school to become a mutant right lawyer. When he started law school, he discovered that using his power to cook was a good way to relieve stress. "It's almost like a forced meditation," he said. And he thought it might be a good idea to show off his power online to mutant kids who feel inferior to humans.

And that's where the disagreement began, with Erik insisting on "we're the better ones" while Charles facepalming. But neither kept grudges against each other. In fact, their activities later that night proved that disagreeing with each other was just the way they flirt.

X

Eight months later.

"How does my tie look?" Parking in front of the house, Charles asked, fingers fumbling nervously. "Is my suit wrinkled?"

"It's fine. You look great." Erik reassured him.

"It's my first time meeting your mother, Okay? I don't want to fuck up."

"She won't eat you. Just relax."

As Erik promised, Edie was exceptionally welcoming and warm. After dinner, she showed Charles around the house, presenting their framed family photos on the walls. One of the pictures caught Charles' attention--much to Erik's chagrin, in which Erik was sitting, hands behind his back, being cuffed by a school policeman.

"Oh! That was taken in his sophomore year in college," Edie explained, rather proudly. "He was protesting against the school's unequal treatment to mutant students with visibly different appearances."

"Mama, please--" Erik was sure his face was in some shade of scarlet.

"How wonderful. Always fighting for mutant's rights." Charles chuckled along with Edie, pinching Erik mentally.

 _For the record, I don't regret what I stood up for. But I'd probably approach the matter in a different way today._ Erik thought to him.

 _I'm proud of you. We are proud of you._ Charles thought fondly. _The handcuffs also gave me some dirty ideas, you know._

_Charles, no._

_Are you sure?_

_...Perhaps we can revisit the matter later_. Erik sighed, both mentally and audibly.

X

The morning after Erik finished his bar exam, Charles came over to his apartment to celebrate. Honestly, he wanted to take Erik out to dinner last night, but Erik said he was tired, and convinced him to come over for home-made brunch the next morning instead.

Pancakes and hash browns were set on the table, Charles was sitting at the table, playing with Magnet. Erik was still busy in the open kitchen, watching the stainless steel milk pitcher churning with frothy milk.

"You know what, Charles?" Letting the pitcher float in the air, Erik turned to look at him. "I was just thinking last night, that marriage is such a pointless thing."

"Huh?" Frowning, Charles was a little unsure how to respond to that statement.

"You see, a marriage made a lot of sense back when women couldn't work or inherit property so they needed financial security. And men had the financial means and needed heirs, thus the exchange." Erik continued to make his point while working on the cup of coffee. "I just don't see the point of it today, especially now we know gender isn't binary and we can love whoever the fuck we want."

A tinge of irritation whirls around in the air, Charles began to make his counter-argument.

"First of all, I don't deny that there are points in the marriage that are outdated, but that hardly makes it invalid, or pointless as you call it. I think you underestimated the importance of rituals in our societies. A wedding or an exchange of vowels is essentially a ritual, and it shows the connection..."

Charles was in the middle of making his third point--legal reasons--when Erik brought a cup coffee to the table, which came with a heart shape on top and letters written in elegant cursive: "Marry me?"

[ ](https://imgur.com/MrxXcWM)

Eyes widened and mouth agape, Charles looked at the cup dumbfounded for a moment before bursting into laughter.

"Oh, Erik!" He wiped a few tears gathered in the corner of his eyes. "You got me!"

"Will you?" Erik reached Charles' hand tentatively, a silver rings floating in the air.

**Author's Note:**

> Magneto's Kitchen was inspired by [JunsKitchen](https://www.youtube.com/user/JunsKitchen) on YouTube. The cat in the photo is Jun's cat, Haku.  
>  The coffee art was created by the talented [leekangbin91](https://www.instagram.com/leekangbin91/) on Instagram.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Family Affair (Magneto's Kitchen Remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19755463) by [sebastian2017](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sebastian2017/pseuds/sebastian2017)




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